Bell 30

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Bell 30
Bell 30 flight testing
Role Experimental helicopter
National origin United States
Manufacturer Bell Aircraft
Designer Arthur M. Young
First flight 26 June 1943[1]
Introduction 1943
Retired 1944
Status Preserved
Number built 3
Developed into Bell 47

The Bell 30 was the prototype for the first commercial helicopter, and the first helicopter built by the Bell Aircraft Company.[2] Designed by Arthur M. Young, the type served as a demonstration testbed for the successful Bell 47.[2]

Development

Young had experimented alone with helicopter designs using scale models, and in 1941 he approached the Bell Aircraft Corporation in Buffalo, New York. The company agreed to build a number of full-scale prototypes, and Young moved to Buffalo. With the main Bell factories immersed in war production, and to ensure a research and development program that was sufficiently private and free of distractions, Young and his team moved to the Buffalo suburb of Gardenville (West Seneca). The Ship 1 prototype's first serious mishap occurred near the very end of 1942 in captive testing, when a Bell corporate pilot asked to try the Ship 1, while not using a seat belt and hanging onto the controls instead to stay in the open cockpit - this captive flight attempt resulted in the rotor system "going through resonance" as designer Arthur Young had warned about, resulting in a "bucking" instability and accident which cracked the rotor blades loose and sent the pilot up into the disc of the rotor blades, luckily only breaking an arm.[3] The first free flight of Ship 1 was carried out on June 26, 1943,[4] only the third American helicopter to fly.[5]

The Ship 1 prototype

Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.[6]

Variants

Data from:Bell Aircraft since 1935[7]

Ship No.1
(c/n 1) The original Bell 30, built with an open-frame tubular steel framework with an open cockpit and four widely splayed undercarriage legs with skids at the ends, made from 3 in (76 mm) Aluminium alloy tubing. First flown on 29 December 1942, test flying continued until a serious crash in September 1943.
Ship No.1A
(c/n 1A) Ship No.1, rebuilt after the crash with a strutted tricycle undercarriage with nosewheel, and semi-enclosed cockpit, rejoined the test programme by March 1944.
Ship No.2
(c/n 2) The second aircraft was built with a new three wheeled undercarriage, semi-monocoque fuselage, new tail rotor mounting and fully enclosed cockpit for pilot and passenger.
Ship No.3
(c/n 3) The third aircraft was built with a triangular-section welded tubular steel tailboom, four-wheeled undercarriage, full set of instruments, but a completely open cockpit. Performance and handling of this aircraft were found to be much better than its predecessors but the open cockpit was viewed as a major handicap. Young described flying the aircraft as being "like sitting in a chair and flying through space." However, Bell company officials who flew in it found the experience to be thoroughly frightening.[8] The solution to the open cockpit was the plexiglas bubble that was to become iconic on Bell 47/H-13 production aircraft.
Ship 1A on display at the National Air and Space Museum, 2012

Surviving aircraft

Ship No.1A is on display at the National Air and Space Museum[citation needed]

Specifications

Data from [2]

General characteristics

  • Crew: one
  • Capacity: two passengers
  • Powerplant: 1 × Franklin 6V4 flat-six piston engine, 160 hp (120 kW)
  • Main rotor diameter: 33 ft 0 in (10.06 m)
  • Main rotor area: 855.3 sq ft (79.46 m2)

Performance

See also

Related development

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era

References

Notes

  1. ^ Note:Aerofiles has the date as the 29 December 1942
  2. ^ a b c d e The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft (Part Work 1982-1985). Orbis Publishing.
  3. ^ Helicopter Pioneers- first Bell Flight Testing (YouTube) (YouTube). Gardenville, NY: burgesco1. 1943. Event occurs at 4:40. Archived from the original on 2021-12-20. Retrieved July 25, 2015.
  4. ^ "Bell 30". kamov.net. Archived from the original on May 11, 2012. Retrieved May 9, 2012.
  5. ^ a b "American airplanes:Bell". www.aerofiles.com. 20 April 2009. Archived from the original on 2 January 2010. Retrieved 2009-12-23.
  6. ^ "Bell Model 30 Ship 1A Genevieve - Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum". Archived from the original on 2010-01-23. Retrieved 2012-03-25.
  7. ISBN 1-55750-056--8
    .
  8. ^ Gobel, Greg. "The Bell Model 47". www.airvectors.net.

Bibliography

  • The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft (Part Work 1982-1985). Orbis Publishing.
  • Pelletier, Alain J. (1992). Bell Aircraft since 1935. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press for Putnam Aeronautical Books Limited. pp. 55–58.
    ISBN 1-55750-056--8
    .
  • "American airplanes:Bell". www.aerofiles.com. 20 April 2009. Archived from the original on 2 January 2010. Retrieved 2009-12-23.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bell 30.
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